Mensday: What to wear to get your man / What to get your man to wear

Beautifully photographed and styled shoot with the slightly needy/domineering title as above. Curious.

Doing what I do, I’m in a good position to find and gift some [what I think are] beautiful clothes to my boyfriend. But I’m always hyper-aware that I don’t want to be the kind of girlfriend who tries to mould or change, in style or in any sense. And while I certainly enjoy dressing well for his delectation, I’m not the kind of girl who is ever really going to dress just to please a man. I consider it a happy accident that we have very similar sensibilities, so it’s not something I really have to worry about these days.It’s a hard balance to strike, because our notions of sex-appeal and prettiness are invariably influenced by what we know men find appealing. Even the ‘anti fashion’ brigade dress in a way which they know will appeal to a similarly ‘anti fashion’ kind of man they might fancy. They may deny it, but it’s hard to separate style and sex-appeal on any level. An unwearably bonkers couture dress still reeks of money and power, which are alluring to many a man.

I’ve always had a slightly Good Cop/Bad Cop approach to dressing for my previous boyfriends. Rarely have they ever truly appreciated everything I’ve owned. On a good day, for them, I would shove ‘that top I don’t like’ to the back of my closet. On a bad day, for them, I would wear the exact opposite of what I knew they liked. I enjoyed knowing that it reflected badly on their taste, and well on mine of course.

From Petticoat, July 1969. Photos by Brian Songhurst.

If I walked into a club and saw three men dressed like this lot, I think I’d have to do a star jump onto them. Yum!

6 Comments on “Mensday: What to wear to get your man / What to get your man to wear”

My husband is appalled by my taste and hates all my non-vintage, overtly street/kawaii stuff.However ironically he refuses to criticise me on days I dress like that and even buys stuff for me- I used to have a controlling ex who 'dressed' me, hence he does this as a deliberate sign of respect. Which is of course an attractive and civilised way to behave… so even though it's not the clothes themselves it's still about luurve in a way!!

You know I love it! I really like the belt over that super shoulder button jumper. I'm very lucky that my o.h. & I like very similar styles, but in all our time together he has never bought any clothes for me. I guess he knows better by now….

Back in the day when I was first going out with my husband he told me I could dress him vintage. Unfortunately back then there wasn't much vintage for men around unless you wanted 501s and baseball jackets.All I managed to get him was a 40s suit. Now of course everyone else wants vintage too so its not so easy to find affordable items for the few times a year he wears it. hey ho.Wish I could get him to wear velvet trousers though…

Hi, I'm just about to check out your lovely blog, hoping we could follow one another with google friend connect? I follow you now :)Really love the white floral blouse, so charming!xx vivianehippiebohoreloaded